Tevi Troy says Bob Woodward’s books get the Washington Read -- "the phenomenon by which, through a form of intellectual osmosis, a book is absorbed into the Washington atmosphere." (That's different from the Index Scan, which is a glance over the credits to see if you’re mentioned.)

According to former White House speechwriter Dan McGroarty, to qualify as a Washington Read, a book not only has to be ambitious; it also needs “to be a book one would feel pressure to have read, and read early.” This need to be ahead of the curve, coupled with demanding jobs that leave little time for reading, pushes people toward the Washington Read.

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AUTHOR INFORMATION

From 1999 to 2011, Jim Romenesko maintained the Romenesko page for the Poynter Institute, a Florida-based non-profit school for journalists. Poynter hired him in August of 1999, after seeing his MediaGossip.com, a hobby site he started in May of 1999.